Elizabeth's Rival
The Tumultuous Tale of Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester
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The first biography of Lettice Knollys, one of the most prominent women of the Elizabethan era.
Cousin to Elizabeth I – and very likely also Henry VIII’s illegitimate granddaughter – Lettice Knollys had a life of dizzying highs and pitiful lows. Darling of the court, entangled in a love triangle with Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I, banished from court, plagued by scandals of affairs and murder, embroiled in treason, Lettice would go on to lose a husband and beloved son to the executioner’s axe. Living to the astonishing age of ninety-one, Lettice’s tale gives us a remarkable, personal lens on to the grand sweep of the Tudor Age, with those closest to her often at the heart of the events that defined it.
In the first ever biography of this extraordinary woman, Nicola Tallis’s dramatic narrative takes us through those events, including the religious turmoil, plots and intrigues of Mary, Queen of Scots, attempted coups, and bloody Irish conflicts, among others. Surviving well into the reign of Charles I, Lettice truly was the last of the great Elizabethans.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tallis (Crown of Blood) has constructed a thorough first biography of Lettice Knollys that also serves as an excellent view of the Elizabethan era from a noblewoman's perspective. For years the young Lettice was a close companion to Queen Elizabeth I, but this closeness was ruptured when, after the death of Lettice's first husband, Walter Devereaux, Earl of Essex, Lettice secretly married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the queen's "favorite" one of "those individuals closest to the monarch, who entertained them, were loyal to them, and perhaps offered the most intimate personal connection outside of their family." Lettice and the queen seldom met again during their lives, and Elizabeth never forgave Lettice for her perceived betrayal. The queen did not display the same lasting rancor toward Leicester, nor did it initially extend to other members of Lettice's family; her firstborn son, Robert, was for a time the queen's favorite after his stepfather's death. Tallis uses Lettice's 91-year life to showcase the scandals, wars, and rebellions that marked the end of the Tudors and the beginning of the Stuart monarchy. Tallis includes pictures, genealogies, a timeline, an extensive bibliography, and notes to round out this work, which is a great choice for historians and lay readers alike.
